My 20-something Thoughts Finally Validated

I was talking to a friend on the phone the other day when he informed me he was on the committee of the Kementerian Perpaduan (Ministry of Unity). What?” I blurted. “Are you sure you’re the right person?” My friend laughed, “Ya I know you think I’m a racist,” to which I giggled back, “Yes you are.”

Nevertheless we had a nice conversation and exchanged views. While I find the politics of my friend somewhat unsustainable, it got me thinking of the people who lay the tracks for our country. Do they understand the underlying layers and psyche of the rakyat?

The Madness of Crowds by Douglas Murray is a brilliant dialogue on the “woke” generation of today, the generation who wield sexuality, diversity and gender as the central everything in life. It is the Lilly Singh generation who has far greater difficulty than their forebears in enjoying the benefits of a capitalistic society, where home ownership is tougher than ever. It is a society like this where social justice is most appealing.

Murray sees the nonsense of the social justice warriors as being similarly dogmatic to the ideas of the people they condemn, an over-correction that has no end.

Except for race, the identity politics (gender, LGBT) in Murray’s books are not keenly felt in this part of Asia. UK and US have reached high levels of sensitivity where enquiring after someone’s ethnicity is considered offensive. Where women have to call themselves cisgender, use terms like non-binary, because a male-to-female trans insists on being called a woman.

Race

It has become fashionable to condemn the white male and assume the unemployed New Hampshire white male is better off than all blacks simply because of “white privilege.” Where Black Studies and Woman Studies are fields of academia in universities that aim to celebrate identity, White Studies is specifically meant to denigrate white people.

An example of fever pitch madness was Evergreen State College Washington where students harassed Professor Bret Weinstein for standing up for white rights, accusing him of being a racist to people of colour. The 2017 campus rebellion saw Weinstein leave, never teaching in Evergreen again.

Women

Porn culture has permeated daily life so much so that Kim Kardashian and Nicki Minaj can writh about naked with whipped cream and call it “woman power.” No lewd comment or sexual impulse is allowed and Murray finds it utterly unfair for men saying “Women want to be sexy but expect not to be sexualised.” He points out the double standards that while Hollywood has taken a firm stance since the MeToo movement, women get away with wielding their sexual power to unwilling men.

In 2018, head of IMF Christine Largarde wrote about lessons learned from the 2008 crash, repeating her favourite mantra “If it had been Lehman Sisters instead of Lehman Brothers; the world would look a lot different today.” Her position was echoed by many women who appear to say that not only are women as capable as men, but better.

Gay

In the quest for equality, many demands are left unaddressed. If gays achieved the same rights as everyone, marriage for instance, should they then be subjected to the same standards as heterosexual couples? Or is there a gay opt-out when it pleases them.

Gay pride marches often come with exhibitionism in various states of undress. Is it possible that people may be more accepting and unbothered should a more placating approach be taken? We don’t recall the Black civil rights movement marching in a fetish fashion.

Murray who is gay has often said that being gay has no bearing on his contribution to the world. The fact that he is gay is neither good nor bad. A moral nothing.

Trans

There is man, there is woman and there is intersex (humans born with ambiguous genitalia). For years and in various cultures, there have been people who are a little bit of both (but not born intersex). The Hijras in India, the Katoys in Thailand, the Fa’afafine in Samoa. Does it mean that the people with gender fluidity have to go for surgery to change sex? Murray who has angered a fair bit with his views feels not. At the very least, he presses for more research. He offers that perhaps it is fine to live as one is.

For while less publicised, many transsexuals have also changed their mind about surgery. Studies document that depression of a person “in the wrong body” does not go away after surgery. Sadly in the area of the intersex (clearly a hardware issue), where too little research has been carried out and too many assertions made, no cause has been championed. The loudest proponents for transsexuals prefer instead to dwell on the pronouns given to a bearded man who feels like a woman.

The above is merely a tiny glimpse into the various cases Murray highlights in his book. I’ve gone on to watch several interviews of Murray since and am greatly attracted to Murray’s point of view; a voice of reason in the midst of madness, a thinker who can help progress a country.

Incidentally he was born in 1979 making Murray Gen X. Go Gen X!! May I recommend that those who can, give him a listen.

Thank you for the book Living :)